The Brightness of the Flames
by Ballistica
Summary: Elsa is now free of fear. But she remembers a boy she met in her solitude. He was like her. He was considered dangerous, unfeeling, and destructive. But all Elsa saw was a broken man.
1. Chapter 1

**What's up? So, new story. I know I said I would update my others a while back, but then more stuff got in the way. Anyways, this idea had been festering on my brain ever since I saw Frozen. The story starts when Elsa is 17 and Anna is 14.**

**Chapter I**

I never wanted them, but better me than another.

I always told myself this, ever since my father first said these words to me. The power I wield is destructive and dangerous. They are perfect for the occupation that I have, the life of pleasure and ease. Well, at least that's how I would describe it. Others would call it sick, senseless, and even unholy. But, it is all a matter of perspective now isn't it?

I am a pirate. I take what I please, do what I want, and kill whoever looks at me wrong. That happens some too often though, because people don't believe that a boy can pilot his own vessel, especially one that flies the Black Flag.

They don't think that for too long though. Not when they meet me face to face.

It's true that people don't think I'm fit for the title of Captain, but those people don't serve under me. My crew thinks differently though. They give me the respect that I deserve. And they gain mine as well. We are a bunch full of misfits, but we treat each other as family.

The crew does question me though; they have openly told me on some occasions that I am too young to see the harshness of this life. I don't blame them for telling me this. They are right after all, but this is the only place for me.

The only place I'll ever be accepted.

You see, I'm a talented individual. People call me different things depending on where you are in the world. Diablo, Spitfire, Captain Satan, it doesn't matter. They all mean the same thing. They mean that I have the power of fire, to create and manipulate the element at my own will. You'd think that when people knew that, no one would want to join my crew, but us pirates are different. My crew doesn't care about my abilities as long as I don't use it on them, which I don't.

I' m getting too deep into this though. This story isn't just about me. It's about me and a girl, and it all started with a blizzard…

It was the 8th of January, when I took my greatest prize to date. One whole year of pirating, and I have finally taken down a Naval Convoy. The ship that was bound for Corona was packed high with gold pieces. After a thorough count, the take was added up to 5,000 gold pieces. A bloody good take. I looked toward the setting sun with a smile of pride on my face.

"Captain Falkenwrath, a word if you would."

"Of course John, what can I help my quartermaster with?" I say.

"Well sir, I hate to put a damper on this fine take, but we have travelled far too north to stay out at sea for the night. This part of the world is very prone to blizzards. We need to make port for some proper quartering or we may not survive the next few days," My face turned to a look of concern. I deeply cared for my crew.

"Very well John, do you have a heading?" I ask.

"Yes sir, there is a kingdom near here that is not aware of your occupation sir. The kingdom of Arendelle." This surprised me. Even after only a year of pirating, the whole world pretty much knew who I was. I mean, I throw fire balls and let people know it.

"How could people not know who I am?" I ask.

"Well sir, Arendelle is a tricky country. No one has seen the royal family in years. Plus we never have taken an Arendelle ship before." John says.

"Very well Quartermaster. Take the helm for me if you would. I need a drink." I say as I head for the captain's quarters. I hear a "yes sir" as I walk into my chambers and sit at my desk.

I have heard of Arendelle before. It was always shrouded in mystery after many years of solitude. I never cared to take any of their ships because their main export is ice, and I never needed that considering heat doesn't bother me.

I uncorked a bottle of rum and downed it in the span of 10 seconds. With the warm sensation in my stomach and the rocking of the boat, I was lulled to sleep.

I was awoken by the sounds of high winds as I pulled myself out of my chair. The rum still had me a little shaky, but nothing I couldn't handle. As I walked outside, the air was filled with frozen rain and high winds as the waves rocked the ship from side to side. I made my way to the upper deck to find John struggling to keep on course.

"Quite the storm eh John?" I say.

"Aye sir, but we have just entered the fjord. Arendelle is in sight." John says.

"You sure John? I can't see anything through this blizzard."

"Yes sir. If you climb into the nest, you may get a better view."

With a nod, I walk towards than main mast, and start to climb. When I reach the nest, I looked forward. Even though the blizzard was coming down hard, you could still see the tops of buildings as well as a castle not too far off. I smiled as I climbed down.

Within the hour, we were docked in Arendelle and hurrying to the nearest inn. As I walked into the inn, I found most of my crew inside as well as John talking with the inn keeper. I made my way towards them.

"Only four to a room!" the inn keeper said.

"Sir just understand-"

"What is happening here?" I cut in.

"Sir, the keeper here says that the limit of people in one room is four, and there are only 8 rooms open. Including you that would leave one man out." John explained.

"Can someone sleep in the bar area?" I ask before being yelled at.

"No! No one will sleep in the bar! I don't know where you gentleman are from but that is not happening." The inn keeper said. Strict guy.

"Sir, one of us would understand if they were left to sleep in the snow." John said. I looked towards my crew to see them all staring at me. Leaving someone out was an option. I could leave the laziest of the crew out. The only problem was that the laziest of the crew worked harder than the average sailor. These men deserved to stay indoors.

"No John. Get these men to the rooms. I'll find other accommodations." I say as I threw a small bag of gold towards the inn keeper.

"Sir, we couldn't do that to you-" John tried to protest before I cut him off.

"That's an order quartermaster!" I said as my eyes started to flare.

"Y-yes sir! Right away." He said as he hurried off to the members of the crew to organize sleeping arrangements as I walked back into the storm.

When I reached the outside, the snow was coming down harder than before. The heat sure didn't bother me, but the cold was something completely different. I started a fast walk around the area looking for another inn or an abandoned house that I could sleep in, but I ended up being empty handed. That is until a walked by the castle.

The royals have closed themselves off, so there are certainly no guests. There should be plenty of empty bedrooms in the castle. What are the chances of getting caught? I smiled deviously as I made my way towards the east side of the castle.

Sneaking past the guards was the hardest part, and scaling the wall was quite easy. You know what us sailors say. Every finger's a fish hook. I decided to climb to the higher part of the castle considering that that part of the castle was the probably the abandoned part. As I reached a window, I shoved it open and clambered inside.

As I shut the window behind I slunk to the floor shivering. I ignited my hands on fire and rubbed myself down to warm myself up. When I reached my regular body temperature, I proceeded to the fire place and shot some flames into it igniting it in seconds.

As I turned around, I saw a girl with platinum blonde hair already in the bed holding up the covers in fear while staring at me wide eyed. Damn, I didn't need for someone to know my powers in a kingdom that didn't know me. I opened my mouth to talk, but only one thing came out.

"Uh oh."

**Alright, good start. Let me know what you think by leaving a quick review. By the way, the Captain won't affect the original Frozen story. There will be a time skip. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, bros. Someone recently told me to put inspirational quotes before every chapter. Now, I'm too lazy to do it every chapter, but I'll do it this once**

_It's getting harder to see what people want me to be. It's just me being me. I'm just Charlie Scene_

_-Charlie Scene_

**Chapter II**

"Uh oh."

I was staring at some stranger that was in my room. He's probably a thief come to steal the riches of the Arendelle Royal Family. Or worse, an assassin that was hired by someone who found out about my powers and wanted me dead. As multiple terrible thoughts rushed through my head, the room temperature dropped and ice started to cover spots around me. This made me even more scared because it probably gave the stranger more reason to kill me. And thinking those thoughts, the indoor weather started to get worse.

I looked at the man to see that he was unfazed. In fact, the area around him was the only spot that wasn't freezing over. I gained as much courage and composure as I could as I started to speak.

"W-who are you." I managed to squeak out. He was still looking around in awe of the ice. In fact, he was chuckling. Does he think this is amusing? He must have a demented mind.

"Calm down Snow Angel. I'm not here to cause you trouble." He said. Although some of the fear was lifted off of my shoulders, it didn't stop the full brunt of my fear from manifesting on the walls.

"I ask again, who are you?" I ask while still holding the covers up to my eves in a hopeless defense attempt.

"Well, they call me a lot of things. Pyro, Diablo, Spitfire-" with each word he stepped towards the bed, and with each step he took, the ice around him melted and evaporated as quick as lightning.

"-but you can call me Axel." He finished with a smile as he sat on the side of the bed. I quickly moved towards the other side of the bed.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your slumber, but I needed a place to stay since the inn is full." My face turned to one of anger.

"So you thought that my room was your only option." I said coming close to yelling. The man held his hands up.

"Hey, I didn't know you slept here. I was just hoping for an empty room. But after seeing what I just saw, I'm pretty glad I found you." He said as he leaned towards me. As he did, I could see his face in the light of the fire. He had short spiky charcoal black hair, a defined jaw, and a few scars that crossed his face. He was quite young in fact. He couldn't be much older than her. The most startling thing about him though was his eyes. His eyes were blood red.

"Look missy, that little display you just put on was pretty impressive, but you don't have much control now do you?" he says. My face instantly turns into one of sorrow as I look down.

"Luckily, I think I can help you learn a little control." I look up in interest as he smirks at me. Even though I just met the man, heat starts to rise to my face with the look he gave me.

"What would you know about this?" I ask a little harsh. I still didn't trust him. After all, he is a stranger that just climbed through my window.

"More than you Snow Angel." He says as he snaps his fingers, instantaneously creating a flame. I stare at the flame in complete awe of what I was seeing. He was like me. he has experience and knowledge that I desperately needed. My mind screamed at me not to say yes, but it failed me as I gave in to his offer.

"So, you'll help me? Just like that?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" he says with a crooked smile.

"I mean that, well most people would expect a reward." I state.

"Well snow angel, I'm an honorable being, sort of, and I am willing to do this free of charge. But, I am leaving in the morning, so we must begin immediately" I frown at the hearing of this annoying pet name that he has adopted.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I say in irritation.

"Hm?"

"Snow Angel, it is disrespectful. I am royalty you know?" I say.

"Please lass, I'm not one to care about the class a person is born into. As for the name, it is fitting. You have ice powers, and you are as beautiful as an angel." My cheeks start to turn crimson at his statement. But, his forwardness isn't comfortable.

"Plus, you haven't even told me your name." he says.

I look towards him wondering if giving out my name was a good idea. He is an intruder. It is probably unsafe, so I decide against it and shake my head. Upon seeing this he shrugs.

"Snow Angel it is then. Now stand over here and let's begin."

For the next few hours, the man named Axel made me do exercises that would help boost my moral and help my confidence. We started with Axel and I just shaking hands until I got to the point where we shook hands without me freezing part of it. He turned out to be quite patient and didn't ever lose his temper even though the one exercise took two hours. At some point I realized that this was the closest I've ever been with a boy my age. As I realized that, my pale face turned deep scarlet and I froze half of Axel's arm. While I started to panic that I just gave him a death sentence, he just laughed and melted it off.

Through other exercises, I would ask questions about Axel. He told me that he was born in the country of Corona, his father was a sailor, and that he was 18.

"What do you do for a living?" I ask.

"Umm… I'm a privateer. Of sorts."

"Oh? How exciting? Aren't they scared of your powers though?" I ask.

"Well, the people I work for are quite accepting of me."

"Really? I wish I could be there. I assume you work for Corona?" I say.

"Yeah, let's go with that." He says looking down. It was obviously not true, but it seemed he didn't want me to push the matter. I noticed that the sun was coming up.

"It's morning. I hoped our time together has helped you."

"I believe it has, but can't you stay to help me further?" I questioned.

"I'm sorry Snow Angel, but I have my own duties to attend to. Who knows, maybe the circumstances will cause our paths to cross again someday." He said. I looked up into his crimson eyes and saw that he was actually sincere. I smiled that through the night I had found the first friend I've had in years.

"Promise me?" I blurted out feeling a little immature at my notion. He chuckled.

"Ok, I promise to come back to see you Snow Angel."

"Elsa" I say.

"Hm?"

My name. It's Elsa." I say.

"Very beautiful. I promise to come back Elsa," I smile and blush at his sincerity and before I knew it I had wrapped my arms around him.

"I'll miss you. Even though I only knew you for a night." I say.

"I will too Elsa. Just be careful while I'm gone." With that he climbed to the window and scaled down with ease.

I watch him leave with a smile on my face. This night seems like one of the stories that mother used to read Anna and I when we were younger. I was quite tired, so I decided to get some sleep before Kai came to awaken me. Before I could shut my eyes, my mother walks in.

"Elsa, your father and I want you to accompany us to a meeting today." She says.

"Mother, you know I don't want to be around other people!"

"Please Elsa, this is of utmost importance involving our nation's security." She says.

"…Alright, but I don't want to stay too long or get involved in the politics." I say.

"You won't have too. We just want you to observe for when you become queen."

I put on a quite conservative dress and a pair of gloves incase I lose control. My mother and I make our way to the war room where we found an ambassador of Corona talking with my father.

"-This is for your safety as well as many others." The ambassador say, Father sees us arrive and motions us over.

"So, what is this emergency about?" My mother asks.

"Upon entering the kingdom this morning, I found the Burning Phoenix docked in your port." The ambassador said.

"The what?" Mother asks.

"The Burning Phoenix. It is the ship of the notorious pirate, Captain Axel Falkenwrath." I stiffen in shock as I hear the name of the man that had conversed with me not too long ago.

"Pirates?" my father says.

"Yes, one of the most dangerous pirates we've ever known. He is a spawn of hell. He has the powers to manifest the Devil's element. He has been a threat for over a year now." The ambassador says.

Everything else phases out as I think about what is going on. The first person I had befriended in years is a criminal.


End file.
